No Freedom
by kestraTroi7
Summary: Season 2 finale speculation: after the final battle. Cora's gone. Regina's been cursed. She's not waking up.
1. Chapter 1

**No Freedom**

The prologue's from Regina's POV, but you can probably figure that out… I hope you like it and I really like reviews :) Especially since I'm in a 3 huge tests week at school. So I might update on the weekend. This first chapter's short, but the next one will probably be longer.

By the way, I haven't seen 2x14 yet (am off to now) so if there's something really crazy in there this story might be screwed, because I like my speculation to be plausible.

I had no title so this is named after the new Dido song, No Freedom, but it might change – if you have a better one, please, suggest away!

**Prologue:**

_Cora's gone._

The first thing she feels is relief. She's won. She can rest at last because Henry is safe and Daniel is avenged and she is last, what she craved for her whole life is hers. She is _free._

_Cora's gone._

Then a terrible, consuming guilt. It's a pain akin to the pain she felt when her mother was supposedly dead in the coffin, rose in her hands. It's more real, somehow, now, despite the fact that she thought it to be real then. She's killed her own mother.

_I killed my mother._

She can barely stand. She feels herself sway on her feet. There are voices around her, getting closer. They all stood back for the fight, but now they are swarming in. Masses of blue and red and green and black. Are they, even now, running with pitchforks and knives, eye on the target, poised for the kill? The ultimate target, she must seem to be – she is weakened, the Evil Queen, scarcely able to keep upright.

_I killed my mother._

She has saved the town. She has saved Henry. Her perfect boy – she has protected him. She has done it.

What more must she do? What more can she do to _prove _it to them?

Her eyes won't focus. What do they want? Their words blur and smear unclear in her ears. What do they say? There is a flash of blond before her face, a small head of brown hair, at half the height of the others, before she is seized with a crippling, overwhelming pain.

_My mother… gave me a final gift._

A cry tears from her lips. It sounds distorted, even to her own ears. A memory hits her, of but a moment before. Her mother, hurling a ball of red magic towards her son. Emma, the foolish woman, threw him back and looked wildly at Regina for help. Magic, dark magic had to be absorbed to be stopped.

Henry would never forgive her for letting Emma die. Maybe she would have him, but he would never love her again. Better to take the magic.

There was a flare in her mother's eyes. A look of anguish for a mere instant and it is gone. Then they harden and she faces her demise.

_A curse._

She feels herself fall. She doesn't feel the thud of the concrete but rather someone's warm hands, guiding her body to the floor. It's a strange feeling of disembodiment. She feels the hands but can't hear the voice, can't see the face.

"Regina! Regina, can you hear me?" It's Emma. Her face comes in to startling clarity for a dizzying moment. She groans.

"She's been cursed!" It's a young voice. Her little boy. Her bright young man. "We have to help her!"

She sees white before realizing it is not her mind gone blank but Snow White. Her despised enemy, but that dearest little girl. "I'm so sorry, Regina."

There's a pressure on her hands. Little hands grasping her own. "Mom! You have to stay with me. You saved us! You became good and good always wins!"

On her shoulder now, she feels another hand. It's stronger and it lends her strength. She can feel it coursing though her, lending her untamed magic. The saviour. It's not enough but it's enough for her to say what matters.

"Hen- ry…"

_I will never be free of her._

Her eyes slip closed.

_I surrender._

She will never be free.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello. Thanks to people who favourited/reviewed. Reviews especially make me very happy :)**

**I was going to destroy this story because I find I don't like it (written at 11.30 at night. Like this chapter.) but I don't like to stop unfinished, so it mightn't be great, but it will be finished. I wish I had finished the whole thing and published it as a one-shot.**

**Anyway, it seems that from the last 2 episodes the conflict with Cora might be coming to a head in 2x16 and not the finale like I previously thought. Also, I don't think that Snow should be the one to kill Cora, I think it should be Regina, although that isn't to say that I condone a daughter killing her mother, but I think it is something she should do.**

**So here's the next bit:**

**Chapter 1**

Emma sees Regina take in the magic, and in a furious show of strength, send a final, devastating spell to her mother.

Cora falls. She doesn't get up.

And for a moment it seems like it's all going to be okay. Cora's gone. _Evil_'s gone.

Henry runs to Regina first, looking ready to envelop her in a hug. Emma hesitates for a split second, but then follows his lead, because, hell, the woman just killed her own mother for her son, and for the town. She's saved them all.

Behind her there's a murmur of assent, and the rest of the small crowd follows behind her – her parents, Ruby, Archie, Neal (because it's just too confusing to think of him as Baelfire), Hook.

"Who would've thought… the Evil Queen saves us all," Hook drawls to himself.

She hears Archie clear his throat. "She's proving how she's changed."

Hook snorts loudly, but says nothing, for it's true.

Then, suddenly and without warning, Regina staggers back. Emma can't see her face but she sprints forward, past Henry, barely managing to catch the brunette as she falls, eyelids flickering.

"Regina! Regina, can you hear me?" Her voice sounds loud in her own ears, and she feels slightly sick, knowing that Regina absorbed that red magic ball Cora threw that could've hit her. She could have let her, Emma, die, but she absorbed the magic in her place. Maybe it was for Henry, but it was selflessness all the same.

"Regina!" She tries again, but the mayors eyes have squeezed tightly shut, and she can hear a low moan escaping the prone woman.

"She's been cursed!" Henry cries as he reaches his two moms, frightened, for perhaps the first time, not of, but for his adoptive mother. "We have to help her!"

"What Henry? _What can I do?"_

The rest of the group hang back, her father and Ruby look startled, and Neal somewhat confused. Mary Margaret rushes forwards to reach for her former stepmother, once the sweet young girl that saved her life all those years ago.

"I'm so sorry, Regina," her mother whispers to the former queen. The_ evil_ queen who has just destroyed her own mother to save a town that may still well despise her.

Emma sees Regina's eyes open, barely for a moment, softer than she has ever seen her look at Mary Margaret. They close again, and her head slides weakly to the side.

Henry gives a cry and grabs Regina's limp hand. "No! Mom! You have to stay with me. You saved us!" He puts his head on her chest. "You became good and… good always wins!" He whispers again his strongest belief to himself, tears now rolling from his cheeks.

Emma looks blindly to Mary Margaret. _What can she do?_

Mary Margaret nods back to her and whispers, her voice breaking, "You have magic, Emma. Give her your magic."

Henry looks up, hope filling his eyes. He nods to her vigorously.

Emma swallows hard. The last time she helped Regina was with the hat. _Focus on the hat, _she thinks to herself. _Help her defeat it. _

Instinct kicks in and she presses her hand to Regina's shoulder. Regina inhales suddenly and shivers. Emma can feel magic coursing through herself into the woman lying beside her. _Help her defeat it, _she mouths to herself. _Defeat her mother's magic._

Regina's eyes open again, dull and unseeing, but open nonetheless. She raises her hand, "Hen- ry…" she murmurs, before her hand drops to the side.

Emma hears Regina's voice in her mind, sees a hollow black prism for a fraction of a second, the pale queen standing within it, shaking.

"_I surrender."_

She's startled back to reality by David, who grabs her arm, concerned. "What did you see, Emma?" He asks.

_Blackness. Terror. Regina's running now, and there's a wicked laugh. Cora is there._

"No!"

"_Regina! _Regina!_" she tries to yell, but the queen doesn't stop running._

"Emma!"

"_Hey, stop! It's me, Regina." A young man reaches for her now, and Regina stops running. And it's odd, they must know each other, because a beautiful delight spreads across her face and she embraces him tightly._

"_Daniel!"_

"Emma!" Someone is calling her name again, but she can't focus on it, because it's transfixing, what she is seeing is insane, and yet, she senses, somehow, that it is real.

"… _I'm dead. I must be dead."_

_The man, Daniel, shakes his head sadly. "This isn't death, Regina, this is a curse."_

_A blaze of fire burns through the blackness. It scorches Emma, even though it isn't her curse._

Abruptly, Emma lets Regina's shoulder go, breathing heavily. Henry and her parents watch her, fearful.

"Henry's right." She gasps. "It's a curse. Cora cursed her."

Henry's cries run in the air. "Wake up, mom," he gasps, his voice strangled.

Mary Margaret places her hand before Regina's mouth, "She's breathing steadily, it's just… it's like a cursed sleep." She swallows. "Like my curse... This is dark magic, Emma."

Henry bites back his tears and looks at them both. "We have to take her to Rumplestiltzkin."

**I hope you liked it. A review is something that makes me immensely happy :) ****I will try to update quicker for the next chapter.**

**Can't wait for 2x16!**


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